


Under

by IowaGuy1979



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Homelessness, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 16:47:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21059921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IowaGuy1979/pseuds/IowaGuy1979
Summary: What if  someone else had died in that bathroom, on that October day?What if that didn't change a damn thing?





	Under

Chloe Price was cold and wet, which was becoming a common occurrence. She’d been in L.A. for three months now. It really didn’t matter where she was, though. Her place in the world was gone. “I thought home was so shitty. Step-dick screaming at me, Joyce ignoring it. Life had only begun to fuck me over, though.”, she sighed.  
She took out three photos from her wallet.  
One of Rachel Amber. It had been taken just a few months before she had found her dead in a shallow grave. She had been praised and cursed by so many, but, she had been put on a pedestal. She had been Blackwell’s golden girl, but,she had ascended into a almost mythical status, like death at a young age tends to do.  
“Heh, she’d probably have everyone in the afterlife around her little finger, just like here”, Chloe chuckled.  
The second was of Max Caulfield.  
After 5 years of radio silence, Max had come out of nowhere. Chloe had tried to blackmail that fucker, Nathan Prescott. He’d snapped and pointed a gun at her. Chloe knew she had only seconds to live. She was going to die on a bathroom floor, in a town that didn’t give a single fuck about her.  
A voice shouted, “NOT THIS TIME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” And there she was.  
Prescott whirled around, “the FUCK are you doing, bitch?”, and there was a bang that echoed around the tiled walls.  
A red bloom spread across Max’s chest. “..well, shit.”, as she glanced down, in shock.  
Nathan ran out of the door, but Chloe could give a damn about that.  
“MAX! What...Hold on!”, she said. “HELP, someone, please!”  
David Madsen rushed in. “Oh god!” and dialed 911. “Yes, there’s been a shooting at Blackwell Academy!” He moved off outside to talk. Chole’s pleas to Max probably didn’t make it easier to hear.  
“Shit! You don’t call for 5 years, and now you save my life!”  
“I..I’m sorry”, Max whispered, ‘I should have called or texted, but, I was so scared of what you’d say. I thought that you had moved on”  
“Max, I may have been pissed off at you,but, I could never forget my First Mate!”  
Max gasped, a thin rivulet of blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.  
“R...read my journal. It explains.. Expl..”  
David came back in “The ambulance will be here in a few minutes”  
“Hear that, Max Power? Just hold on!”, Chloe sobbed.  
“J..just read it, Chlo”, Max muttered. You need to know.. Read it, starting with today’s entry:”  
‘What? Know what?” she said  
“I.. love you. Always have, always will. At least, everyone’s safe now..” Max gasped, choked, and was still.  
“NO! GODDAMINT!”, Chloe screamed, “It’s not..not fair..”  
The sirens blared, and David ran out to talk to the EMT’s Chloe quickly grabbed the journal she saw in Max’s bag, and stuck it in the back of her jeans, smoothing her shirt over it.  
David came back in saying, “Chloe, you’re not supposed to be here. Run out the back of the building,We’ll talk later, ok?”  
She took one last look at Max’s still form, and ran out. She manged to avoid everyone long enough to sneak back out to her truck. There was only one place she could go now. Chloe shifted the truck into gear and left the parking lot.

She walked through American Rust, the only place she could feel like life wasn’t complete shit.  
“Fuck, I really need this”, she said, as she smoked a joint. “Max… why? What kind of fucking world does this?”, she sobbed.  
After a time, she pulled out Max’s journal. She had said to read it, so Chloe turned to the page.  
Max had indicated. “Wha.. what the shit?” Max had wrote about the next week, that she had time travel powers, about Chloe’s death. And.. and Rachel.” It couldn’t be! Rachel couldn’t be ...dead! She..she.. Chloe ran to the spot that Max mentioned and started digging. Her fingernails became torn, but, fuck them. After only a few minutes, a blue feather earring was uncovered. She dug faster, until she saw her angel, lying there.  
Chloe felt as if all of the air in the junkyard was gone. She stumbled back, falling on her ass. “FUCK! Goddamn fucking piece of shit world! WHY?” she screamed into the air.  
Chloe wobbled back to the shack. Tears flowing down her face, she continued to read.  
There was a storm? Going to hit on Friday? She’d say this was unbelievable, except for what she had just seen. She noted the events that lead up to it. “Well, just gotta watch out for two moons, dead whales.” As she closed the book, she kissed it, “I’ll always love you,Max”

As the days went on, she saw no sign of what Max had described. Maybe...maybe the storm wasn’t coming, because of Max?  
On Friday, she saw dark clouds coming in. Shit, she had to warn at least Joyce.  
Her truck screamed down towards the Two Whales, but the storm had appeared and was gathering strength. She gaped in horror, as it tore through the diner, straight into town.  
She saw the storm shred through the town, leaving no building in it’s wake.  
After what seemed like hours, Chloe checked her phone.  
5 minutes? Arcadia Bay had been obliterated in 5 goddamn minutes!?!  
She took a unsteady breath in, and headed into town to see if there were any survivors.

*****************************************************************************************************

Chloe shook off the memory. She had been the only survivor. God.. Joyce.. Hell, even if David had survived, that would have been something. But, no, it was just her.  
Max had wrote in her journal, that Chloe’s death had stopped the tornado, but, she couldn’t live without her. And she couldn’t live with the death of Arcadia Bay on her conscious.  
So, she had chosen the only path that would save them all, her sacrifice.  
She chuckled hollowly, Max’s dying didn’t do a damn bit of good, Chloe thought.  
She had to have been the one to die, to save everyone. Not Max. Max was so much better and braver than her.  
After the storm, Chloe wandered down to Los Angeles. To feel closer to Rachel, maybe.  
After what little money she had ran out, she had hit the streets.  
Some pickpocketing had give her enough to feed a heroin habit.  
She lived for the rush it gave her, but, it was time.  
Time for her selfish ass to get what she had coming.  
After she injected herself, she took out the third photo One of Joyce and William, smiling for the camera. Max had taken that shot, and her talent had shown, even at that age.  
Chloe gently kissed each photo, and the underpass faded away.  
She was finally leaving this shithole of a world.  
‘’Going..going home” Chloe Price muttered, as it all faded to white.

I don’t ever wanna feel, like I did that day.  
Take me to the place I love, take me all the way

-”Under The Bridge” The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, know I now what it’s like for writers who say, “This isn’t my best work.” Because this is formulaic garbage. I haven’t written anything more than a paragraph in over 12 years.  
I just heard the song on the radio earlier today, and thought, “What would make Chloe into that person?”, and had to write this. Thanks for reading!


End file.
